


Plush Dragons

by Arytra



Category: Dino Thunder
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, GoodMentor!Tommy, Team Bonding, Team Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27537385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arytra/pseuds/Arytra
Summary: Something is wrong with Trent to the point where his team notices and decides to do something about it.  Just loudly and flamboyantly because it's probably true that Dino Thunder can't do anything halfway.
Relationships: Tommy Oliver/Elsa Randall/Anton Mercer, Trent Fernandez-Mercer/Conner McKnight
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	Plush Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tsukino_Akume](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsukino_Akume/gifts).



> One of two stories for Akume's birthday. She said she wanted Tommy being a competent parent and team bonding and I try to be a fantastic future wife, so here's some of all of that! 
> 
> Happy Birthday, Querida!

Conner was the first to notice the nightmares. Kira and Ethan were certain he’d somehow gotten the information from Hayley or something, but he insisted that he hadn’t. At one point, he’d turned to Ethan. “I know when people are upset! I just don’t know how I cause it.”

Who figured what out aside, the fact of the matter was their newest teammate wasn’t doing well. And, like a true sixth Ranger, he was trying to hide that fact from all of them. They all knew that he was feeling off from being evil, but there almost seemed like something else was wrong that he was holding back. When Hayley admitted to Tommy that she was pretty sure that Trent was sleeping in the café, he did what any sensible teacher would do. Well, actually he tried to deal with it on his own for a couple of days until Hayley pushed him to do what any sensible mentor would do: Call a team meeting sans Trent to try to piece together what was going on.

“So,” Tommy spoke up, cutting off the three from talking at the same time. “What do we know?”

“Trent’s having nightmares,” Conner answered. Ethan nodded.

“He’s hiding something too,” he said, looking a little worried.

“He’s not evil though,” Kira continued. “We’d be able to feel that.”

“He’s hiding at the café,” Hayley said. “And he thinks I haven’t noticed.”

Tommy sat back and took it all in, completely focusing on the problem. 

“When I stopped being evil,” Tommy said carefully. “I wanted to be left alone in my room at first. I wasn’t hiding at the Youth Center. Most likely, whatever is wrong, it’s not just being evil.”

“What if he doesn’t feel safe at home?” Ethan asked and they all looked at him. Kira nodded.

“Dr. Mercer is a creep,” she agreed. Tommy looked like he wanted to protest, but Hayley’s glare stopped him. Plus, they had a point. Ethan pulled out his computer and made a diagram of what they were figuring out. 

“So, we think he’s staying at the Cyber Café because he doesn’t feel safe at home,” Ethan said. “Which means something is up with Dr. Mercer. He could be abused, right?”

Kira looked pensive. “I don’t think so or he would have been upset before he turned evil too. He found out something recently.”

“Does it matter?” They all turned and looked at Conner. “He doesn’t want us to know right now, right? So instead of scaring him, maybe we should be fixing it.”

“I thought you wanted to know,” Ethan mentioned.

“That was before I knew he was having nightmares,” Conner answered, looking a little uncomfortable in the way of someone who understood far too well. It was possible that Hayley and Tommy needed to evaluate all of the Rangers later. “I can be mad at him when he’s done waking up in the middle of the night for not telling us. Besides, we’ll figure it out after he lives with Doctor O.”

“What?” Tommy asked and Conner shrugged.

“It’s either you or Hayley and your house is bigger and on top of our base. Plus, Mesagog doesn’t know about Hayley,” he answered. “So, you can adopt him.”

“Conner…” Tommy said. At all four of the other’s looks, he backed down a bit. “It’s not that I don’t want to take him in, but don’t you think it might look suspicious if a teacher takes in a student?”

“Principal Randall won’t notice,” Conner said before turning to Ethan and Kira. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” Ethan asked, wondering when he just got up and went when Conner asked him to.

“Shopping.”

***

Trent, to his credit, was much easier to deal with than the other three in Tommy’s opinion. Sure, he was broken beyond belief, but when Tommy asked him to do something, he didn’t argue. Like the other three did. Constantly. So, when Tommy asked him to stay with him, he didn’t protest, but also didn’t admit anything was wrong. 

They finished moving the few things Trent had into the house, needing to be subtle about it after all, when the trio showed up. “We’re finished shopping!” Conner called out.

“Right after everything is finished,” Tommy said dryly. “Convenient.”

“We had to find the right stuff, Doctor O,’ Conner answered, brushing him off. He turned to Trent who was just watching in amusement. Before Trent could say anything, he was hit in the face by a blanket. Then a pillow. Kira’s voice rose up right afterward.

“You two couldn’t hand them to him?” She demanded. Conner shrugged. “You two are…”

She continued, but Trent tuned her out as he looked over the blanket. It was incredibly soft and plush and felt warm against his skin. There was just one thing weird about it. “Why is my blanket red?”

“Well,” Ethan said. “We went shopping to find you some stuff…”

“And we found the blankets,” Kira continued. “So we grabbed a white one…”

“But I figured out that we were going to need to have our own blankets because of sleepovers,” Conner said. 

“So, why is my blanket red?” Trent asked.

“Mine is white,” Ethan said.

“I have blue,” Kira added.

“And mine is yellow. That way, we have a teammate with us always,” Conner said with a grin. Trent nodded slowly.

“And that’s why I have a yellow pillow?” He asked.

“Red,” Ethan said.

“White,” Kira said.

“Blue,” Conner finished.

“But what about the third teammate?” Trent asked in amusement. “I have Conner and Kira so what about Ethan?”

The three of them looked at each other and Kira pulled a blue plush dragon out from behind her. Around its neck was a ribbon with their respective Zords. Kira smiled at him. “It took us a while to find the ribbon,” he explained. Trent took it carefully and held it.

“Manchester is a good dragon,” Conner said. “He’ll keep you company.”

“Her name is Melody,” Kira said firmly. “She’s a girl dragon, Conner.”

“Is not!” Conner huffed. Ethan rolled his eyes.

“His name,” he said loudly. “Is Captain Drake.”

The three got into a yelling match soon after, fighting over the name and Tommy looked at Trent who seemed overwhelmed. He put a hand on his shoulder and motioned with his head, leading him to Tommy’s bedroom which was quieter. 

“They never change,” Tommy said softly.

“Conner, Ethan, and Kira?” Trent asked and Tommy shook his head.

“Power Rangers,” he answered. He turned on the light and motioned to a shelf. On it, a large plush green dragon stood, its head rested on top of a sleeping plush tiger and a plush falcon was on its back. Trent stared at it for a moment before looking down at the dragon in his hands. “We used to have our own Pow-wows in the Command Center.”

“Is that why you didn’t argue with Conner?” He asked.

“I didn’t argue because it’s a good idea,” he answered. “I don’t know what happened with your dad or what you’re hiding, but I know you’ll tell us later. What I do know is right now, you’re uncertain, scared, and trying to figure out why the people you tried to kill are letting you in so easily.”

Trent looked at him. “How…?”

“I’ve been there,” he answered. “And I had help getting over it.”

Trent looked around the room and saw figurines, plushies, beanie babies, and models of everything from dinosaurs to cars. He looked back at Tommy. He wanted to say something, but he felt overwhelmed and tired. Instead, he felt himself get wrapped up in a hug by Tommy who held him and Trent finally couldn’t hold it back anymore. The weight of everything that had happened crashed forward. Tommy just held him as he sobbed, still clutching his dragon to him. The other three quietly came in the room, realizing that the other two had left and quickly joined in the group hug. Tommy looked up to see Hayley in the doorway and acknowledged that she’d probably stopped the fight. They shared a sad smile as Trent finally pulled away.

He looked at the dragon and then at Tommy and then Hayley. 

“Her name,” he said referring to the dragon. “Is Doc.”

The other three didn’t argue, but nodded instead. Tommy looked at the trio. “Why do you three go get your blankets and pillows and call your parents? We should have a sleepover tonight.” 

They beamed and rushed out. Hayley gave him an approving nod before following. Tommy looked at Trent. “She?”

“Look, she got your title. She needed something from Hayley,” he said before grinning. “We should have a huge sleepover. With your old friends.”

“They’d like that,” Tommy said with a smile. “I’ll give them a call.”

“Doctor O? Why haven’t they come to help?” He asked.

“I may have forgotten to ask for help,” Tommy answered.

“Kind of a dumb thing to forget. Especially with the whole amber thing,” Trent informed him.

“Yeah,” Tommy said.

“And getting stuck in your suit.”

“You have a good…”

“And the coma.”

“I’ll remember faster next time,” Tommy finally said, rolling his eyes.

Trent just laughed and then looked completely serious. “One more question.”

“Hmm?”

“Why were you sleeping with a blue unicorn?” He asked.

“Because after Ethan, it felt awkward with the blue triceratops,” he answered.

“Huh?”

“I’ll explain later.”


End file.
